


As Though Nothing Could Fall

by j_marquis



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Angst, Blindness, M/M, no happy ending, spoilers post chapter 14, spoilers post chapter 9
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-02
Updated: 2017-02-02
Packaged: 2018-09-21 15:20:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9554804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/j_marquis/pseuds/j_marquis
Summary: The daylight isn't coming back. Even if they win, the light will never come back to him.





	

The morning sun was a long time coming. The nights stretched longer and longer until the sun stopped rising entirely, until the daemons took over the roads and the outposts. Slowly, the humans left were retreating, making their way to what remained of civilization.

They had camped out at an abandoned outpost, using the generator to keep the light in the store, no one was there to pay for the alcohol they drank as they tried to push the fights, the injuries, the desperation away. Noctis was gone, the day was gone, Insomnia was never coming back. They didn't know what they were headed into, they only knew what must be done. Prompto shook at night, soft whimpers of nightmares Ignis could hear. He could imagine the furrow in the boy's brow, the tense in his shoulders, the mark he tried to hide that slipped out when he moved in his sleep. Ignis couldn't see the way his brow furrowed, the set of his shoulders, the mark he tried to hide that slipped free when the nightmares turned to desperate thrashing. He could see none of it. He could barely see the light, a slight tinge of orange in the darkness that had become his reality. He knew it was there. He wondered if he saw it at all, it might be his mind tricking him with hope.

Sometimes, it did that. Sometimes, he would dream so vividly that when he woke to darkness he thought that was the nightmare. Sometimes, he thought if he just closed his eyes long enough he could blink away the blindness. Sometimes he would look to where he knew the sun was, like if he just got enough light it would all be over.

Gladio passed him the bottle of liquor, made sure it was in his hand before he let go. "We should be there tomorrow. Are you going to be okay?"

He drank, let it burn down his throat. "What choice do I have?"

"We have enough power here that you'd be okay."

"I can't. You of all people should know that. We can't abandon his highness."

Gladio said nothing, Ignis heard everything. He was weak like this. He was useless, a burden on the few who remained, on his shield, a burden even on the child who held a history none of them spoke of, who needed to be saved. He couldn't save anyone like this. He was dead weight they had to carry, along with the worlds that weighed on their shoulders. The things that they had lost, that no one could save. He couldn't go with them. He would only hold them back.

"We don't know that he's coming back."

"He's coming back, Iggy. He has to."

It was Ignis' turn to go silent. To wrap his arms around himself, hands shaking as he brought the bottle to his lips again. He shouldn't have survived Altissia. He shouldn't have survived any of it. He shouldn't be desperately depending on the strength of the man who moved closer to him, who moved the bottle away, who gathered him into his arms. He shouldn't feel his own heart breaking as the tears threatened to spill. He hadn't cried. This whole time, he hadn't cried. Not when Insomnia fell, not when Altissia was destroyed, not when he woke to darkness and found out that even if they brought the day back, he would never know anything else. He hadn't cried. He hadn't cried for Noctis, for himself, for the King or for the family Ignis barely knew.

He cried for what he knew was coming. He cried for the knowledge that Gladio would move on, he would find somewhere safe for Ignis and leave him there, and eventually he would stop coming back. He cried for the world he knew he was losing, for the inevitability that, one day, he would wander into the night unarmed and he would not come back. He cried because he knew he was giving up. Even if they won, he had lost.

He cried because they had never said those words, the ones they knew they felt when they held each other like this. He cried because he couldn't say it back when, finally, Gladio whispered, right against his ear.

"I love you. Don't you ever fucking forget it."


End file.
